This is not going to instill a lot of confidence in potential Washington state insurance buyers. The state exchange website is not only down again, but it is apparently debiting the bank accounts of customers on the wrong date and even taking cash for premiums more than once.

Shannon Bruner of Indianola logged on to her checking account Monday morning, and found she was almost 800 dollars in the negative.

“The first thing I thought was, ‘I got screwed,’” she said.

The Bruners enrolled for insurance on the Washington Healthplanfinder website, last October. They say they selected the bill pay date to be December 24th. Instead the Washington Healthplanfinder drafted the 835 dollar premium Monday.

Josh Bruner started his own business this year as an engineering recruiter. They said it’s forced them to pay a lot of attention to their bills and their bank accounts.

“Big knot in my gut because we’re trying to keep it together,” said Shannon Bruner. “It’s important to me that this kind of stuff doesn’t happen.”

They’re not alone.

One viewer emailed KING 5 saying, “They drafted my account this morning for a second time.”

Another woman on Facebook with a similar problem commented, “We are all in the same boat.”

“We’ve got to figure out how to get money to pay the bills for the next week or two until we have another check come through,” said Josh Bruner. “It’s just crazy.”

Washington Healthplanfinder emailed the Bruners a few days ago telling them to log in to view their invoice, something they couldn’t do because the website has been down. The Bruners haven’t been able to get through on the helpline either. They finally contacted Healthplanfinder administrators by posting a message on their Facebook page.

Washington Healthplanfinder tells KING 5 their staff is looking into the problem.

“We wrote a check to our nanny last week, it isn’t going to work,” said Josh Bruner. “So she can’t get paid.”

Last month, the same exchange had problems identifying health care providers for specific plans:

The Washington Healthplanfinder insurance exchange has a feature on its website that allows consumers to see if particular doctors and hospitals are in a plan’s network of health-care providers.

The provider directory is to help consumers compare plans on more than just price. The idea is that consumers who want to keep their doctor should be able to find out which plans allow them to do so.

But the directory has been plagued with errors since the website was launched six weeks ago.

The most serious problems have included listing some doctors and hospitals as outside a plan’s network when they are actually in it. This has caused confusion for some consumers trying to choose a plan that includes their doctor or preferred hospital.

Hospitals and physician groups have been busy trying to catch the mistakes and tell the Washington Health Benefit Exchange, which operates Healthplanfinder, to correct the errors. For its part, the exchange acknowledges there are errors and advises consumers to double-check the information on its website with the insurers.

How mad would you be if you chose a plan based on your favored providers being in the network, only to discover that they were mistakenly left off the plan you actually wanted?

I suppose it could be worse. The site could take your money even if you hadn’t signed up for a plan. Taking your money twice comes close to being the worst that exchange could inflict upon you, especially if you don’t look at your online bank account every day.

Hang in there, Huskies. It can only get better, right?

Right?

UPDATE: Correction

The Washington HealthPlanFinder investigated the claim of the Bruners and discovered that the debit to their bank account occurred on the date the family chose. There was no error:

The Healthplanfinder staff investigated their case and could find no problems with the payment system, and that their records show the Bruners scheduled the earlier date as their payment date.

A spokesperson says enrollees received several email notifications to confirm the payment date for their premiums, but admits that because the site has been down for much of last week, that it would have been difficult for any enrollee to login to read those messages.

The finance department is willing to work with the couple to provide a refund if necessary.

We received an email from Bethany Frey of the exchange requesting a correction. We have made that correction for the part of the story that deals with the Bruners.

However, the exchange has not explained how other enrollees were debited twice for their premium.

We have a system with our State Tax Paperwork if you mail it in...you get TWO return envelopes, one with Blue printing, one with Red...

The Instructions are "if you OWE taxes and are sending a check, use the RED envelope, if you are owed a refund, use the BLUE"

We all know the "blue refund" envelopes go into a "Dead Pile" that may eventually get dumped into the ocean, (many folks get charged with not filing after waiting a year for their refunds!) but The State will gleefully tear open every "Red Payment" envelope in a barely contained orgasmic frenzy of lust as soon as they receive them...

So my "refund paperwork" is always sent in the Red Envelope...just to piss them off.

Wow....Merry Christmas from the most corrupt criminal organization to ever be elected to national office. If this becomes the norm - automatically debiting accounts not only improperly or not as agreed, but also multiple times....the msm will not be able to hide this no matter how hard they try. There is no way in hell I would ever give those crooks my financial information. I do feel sorry for those poor children who will be hurt by the actions of their parents...

And this is done by the government, therefore no one has "standing" to complain in court, plus sovereign immunity protects the government and its agents in this robbery. Do not have any faith that this is somehow restricted to the Washington State exchange. Every exchange, and the Federals are just as likely to do it to anyone. There is a reason that they want your financial account information before they let you look at plans. And once they have that, they can just assign you to a plan, premium, and deduction that they want to. Going on their sites, even if you don't sign up, you are making yourself vulnerable to government theft.

The Obama Admin is going to issue a new rule to fix these sort of problems. If you believe your bank account has been debited the wrong amount please call 1-800-screw-yu. What is wrong with people? State and federal exchanges have been a colossal mess since Oct 1st and yet people are eager to hand over their bank account info to them. I would have at least waited a little while, 6 months or more, to see how the payment systems were working. Send a check or call insurance company with credit card.

So, the Bruners thought they'd selected the date they wanted. The system didn't record it that way. Is there any evidence that the system actually informed them of the date they selected or they simply relying on what's currently in the Washington Healthplanfinder system?

Of course the current record says they selected the earlier date -- that's why it charged them on that date. Small consolation that it charged on the date it now says they selected if the system either changed the date, recorded it incorrectly in the first place or was designed so poorly that they couldn't figure out they'd selected the wrong date.

IF this becomes the norm across all the exchanges there will be rioting in the streets for a full repeal. There will be chaos and terminally/critically ill persons in need of regular care will suffer the most. I don't see why the insurance companies cannot hit a 'reset' button....the pools, the risk assessments, the policy specifications and profit margins already existed; did they burn all that information? Sure, there would be hiccups allowing for changes in demographics, but it would be no worse than the abomination we are currently facing. I am NOT saying it would be easy....but it would be "doable". We're Americans for Pete's sake - we can figure this out through free market capitalism and NOT marxist redistribution and lies.

So if the GOP captures the Senate and keeps the House in '14. what do they do?Can't go back to what was before because the insurance industry has re- structured all of it's risk pools to meet the Obamamcare parameters. I am on Medicare but my daughter's family is going to be impacted. What happens now?

Wow....Merry Christmas from the most corrupt criminal organization to ever be elected to national office. If this becomes the norm - automatically debiting accounts not only improperly or not as agreed, but also multiple times....the msm will not be able to hide this no matter how hard they try. There is no way in hell I would ever give those crooks my financial information. I do feel sorry for those poor children who will be hurt by the actions of their parents...

We have a system with our State Tax Paperwork if you mail it in...you get TWO return envelopes, one with Blue printing, one with Red...

The Instructions are "if you OWE taxes and are sending a check, use the RED envelope, if you are owed a refund, use the BLUE"

We all know the "blue refund" envelopes go into a "Dead Pile" that may eventually get dumped into the ocean, (many folks get charged with not filing after waiting a year for their refunds!) but The State will gleefully tear open every "Red Payment" envelope in a barely contained orgasmic frenzy of lust as soon as they receive them...

So my "refund paperwork" is always sent in the Red Envelope...just to piss them off.

And this is done by the government, therefore no one has "standing" to complain in court, plus sovereign immunity protects the government and its agents in this robbery. Do not have any faith that this is somehow restricted to the Washington State exchange. Every exchange, and the Federals are just as likely to do it to anyone. There is a reason that they want your financial account information before they let you look at plans. And once they have that, they can just assign you to a plan, premium, and deduction that they want to. Going on their sites, even if you don't sign up, you are making yourself vulnerable to government theft.

Here in NV we could opt to mail in our premium. I went to the bank & got a money order (so didn't share either my credit card # OR my bank account #) & then I stood in line at the post office to mail it certified mail with a return request receipt. I plan to do this EVERY month. Was it a pain in the @$$?...of course it was, but I'm just that paranoid & after reaing this I am SO GLAD I am!!